...should whet the appetite of anybody looking for a yummy romantic comedy.
As I mentioned before, "No Reservations" is as formulaic as a romantic comedy can get. It is quite predictable and it is easy to stay one step ahead of the characters as the story unfolds. The film doesn´t provide anything fresh or original, but it is polished enough to be entertaining regardless of its shortcomings. While "No Reservations" is definitely a trip we´ve all taken before, the scenery is lovely and the company kept on the trip make it a worthwhile journey. In other words, we´ve all seen pretty much everything presented in "No Reservations" before, but it is still an entertaining movie. The actors are nicely cast and give good performances and the familiar story is worth watching.
Video:
Warner Bros. presents "No Reservations" in a good looking 2.4:1 transfer. The film is mastered with the VC-1 codec and features a colorful and detailed transfer. The busy streets of New York City and the busy kitchens populated by its characters all look wonderful in "No Reservations." Contrast and saturation are both on-par with the better looking films released on Blu-ray. While the transfer is quite good, it is not perfect. Some of the darker scenes result in an overly soft image and details are lost in these darker moments. Thankfully, there are not too many of these instances and typically, "No Reservations" looks very good. The source materials used in the film were clean and you´d be hard pressed to find anything bad in the transfer´s ingredients.
Audio:
The sound format provided with "No Reservations" is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is provided in English, French and Spanish. Romantic comedies are not typically aggressive and are vanilla in their sound design, so it isn´t all that disappointing that the studio did not provide a TrueHD mix. However, the busy streets of New York City provides a wonderful wealth of ambience and the sizzling sounds of skillets and frying pans sound quite good in the film and I would have loved to have experienced "No Reservations" is a higher resolution sound mix. The rear surrounds do provide a nice amount of ambience, but bass response is almost non-existent. Dialogue is good and clean. This isn´t a film to impress with its audio mix, but it sounds good enough considering the subject matter.
Extras:
The first supplement found on the Blu-ray release of "No Reservations" is an episode ofEmeril Live (42:02). This particular episode features Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin cooking a few recipes based upon the film. I honestly have to state that I cannot stand Emeril and therefore could not get past the first fifteen minutes of this special feature. The second and only remaining feature is titled Unwrapped: (21:03) and has host Marc Summers walking around the restaurant set of the film and interviewing cast and crew. Those interviewed includes Catherine Zeta Jones, Aaron Eckhart and the actual chefs that created the delicious dishes featured in the film. This was another promotional supplement, but was a little more watchable than Emeril.
Closing Comments:
"No Reservations" is predictable and follows almost every known convention in romantic comedies. However, its cast is quite good and the story has enough minor twists to the keep a balance with the tried and true clichés found during its slim 104 minute running time. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and young Abigail Breslin are all very good in the film. I preferred director Scott Hicks´ earlier films "Shine" and "Snow Falling on Cedars," but "No Reservations" wasn´t a bad romantic comedy. The Blu-ray release has a strong visual presentation, but an uninspired sound mix. The two supplements run for about an hour, but are promotional shows filmed to help produce box office returns for the film. While this isn´t a great Blu-ray release, it should whet the appetite of anybody looking for a yummy romantic comedy.
Video:
Warner Bros. presents "No Reservations" in a good looking 2.4:1 transfer. The film is mastered with the VC-1 codec and features a colorful and detailed transfer. The busy streets of New York City and the busy kitchens populated by its characters all look wonderful in "No Reservations." Contrast and saturation are both on-par with the better looking films released on Blu-ray. While the transfer is quite good, it is not perfect. Some of the darker scenes result in an overly soft image and details are lost in these darker moments. Thankfully, there are not too many of these instances and typically, "No Reservations" looks very good. The source materials used in the film were clean and you´d be hard pressed to find anything bad in the transfer´s ingredients.
Audio:
The sound format provided with "No Reservations" is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is provided in English, French and Spanish. Romantic comedies are not typically aggressive and are vanilla in their sound design, so it isn´t all that disappointing that the studio did not provide a TrueHD mix. However, the busy streets of New York City provides a wonderful wealth of ambience and the sizzling sounds of skillets and frying pans sound quite good in the film and I would have loved to have experienced "No Reservations" is a higher resolution sound mix. The rear surrounds do provide a nice amount of ambience, but bass response is almost non-existent. Dialogue is good and clean. This isn´t a film to impress with its audio mix, but it sounds good enough considering the subject matter.
Extras:
The first supplement found on the Blu-ray release of "No Reservations" is an episode ofEmeril Live (42:02). This particular episode features Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin cooking a few recipes based upon the film. I honestly have to state that I cannot stand Emeril and therefore could not get past the first fifteen minutes of this special feature. The second and only remaining feature is titled Unwrapped: (21:03) and has host Marc Summers walking around the restaurant set of the film and interviewing cast and crew. Those interviewed includes Catherine Zeta Jones, Aaron Eckhart and the actual chefs that created the delicious dishes featured in the film. This was another promotional supplement, but was a little more watchable than Emeril.
Closing Comments:
"No Reservations" is predictable and follows almost every known convention in romantic comedies. However, its cast is quite good and the story has enough minor twists to the keep a balance with the tried and true clichés found during its slim 104 minute running time. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and young Abigail Breslin are all very good in the film. I preferred director Scott Hicks´ earlier films "Shine" and "Snow Falling on Cedars," but "No Reservations" wasn´t a bad romantic comedy. The Blu-ray release has a strong visual presentation, but an uninspired sound mix. The two supplements run for about an hour, but are promotional shows filmed to help produce box office returns for the film. While this isn´t a great Blu-ray release, it should whet the appetite of anybody looking for a yummy romantic comedy.
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